Ace in the Hole - MatthewHunt

The Big Chill
(Lawrence Kasdan, 1983)
Seminal hippie-cum-yuppie tribute to friendship, centred on a nostalgic weekend reunion of
seven college friends. Kasdan weaves bittersweet reflections on love and sex with a
smattering of soul-searching for lost idealism, offset by a feelgood Motown soundtrack.
The Big Combo
(Joseph H Lewis, 1955)
Joseph H Lewis (Gun Crazy) and monochrome cameraman supreme John Alton to bring film
noir to its minimally expressive climax in the same year as Kiss Me Deadly. Visually inventive
(the climax takes place under a single bulb), and watch for Fante and Mingo, cinema's first
pair of well-adjusted, mutually devoted gay contract killers.
The Big Heat
(Fritz Lang, 1953)
Against a characteristic Lang backdrop of fatalistic trajectories and encroaching madness, of
myriad doublings and halvings (embodied by Gloria Grahame's half-disfigured face, courtesy
of Lee Marvin's coffee-pot), Glenn Ford's enraged, grief-stricken cop comes close to mirroring
the animalism of his gangster foes. Bleak and shockingly violent, even today.
The Big Lebowski
(Joel Coen, 1998)
Jeff Bridges' amiable stoner tangles with dark forces in this gloriously silly riff on Raymond
Chandler. As loosely thrown together as one of The Dude's joints, the plot sprawls to include
everything from a missing trophy wife to a bunch of hopeless German nihilists.
Big Night
(Campbell Scott, Stanley Tucci, 1996)
Character actor Stanley Tucci's starred and co-directed in this winning story of a pair of Italian
immigrant brothers seeking out restaurant success in 50s America. The food is its own
character, emotionally wrought and prepared with all the sensuousness of celluloid
lovemaking. A delicious treat.
The Big Parade
(King Vidor, 1925)
The Saving Private Ryan of the silent era. Vidor's landmark war movie provided a showcase
role for matinee idol John Gilbert as one of a posse of Yanks who sign up for the Great War;
Vidor introduces many a stylistic flourish as bathetic human stories are juxtaposed with
military conflict on a grand scale.
The Big Sleep
(Howard Hawks, 1946)
Take a classic Raymond Chandler novel set in Los Angeles. Make it a mystery more than
anyone can fathom. Then watch the labyrinth turn into a love parade for Bogart and Bacall
(truly a love affair made by the screen). So it's a film noir, a who-dun-what, a private eye
caper, a love story and a screwball comedy.
Big Wednesday
(John Milius, 1978)
The unexpectedly sentimental side of writer-director Milius' testosterone-fuelled schtick is to
be found in this emotional epic, as it tracks three Californian surfer buddies either side of the
Vietnam draft. Cornball dialogue and overblown staging don't matter when the point is so
obviously personal, the surfing magical, and the sense of diverging lives so true.
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
(Stephen Herek, 1989)
California dudespeak is the universal lingua franca as Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter travel
back in time for some field research for their history paper, of which they are in danger of